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Friday, March 28, 2014

The 9 day Isagenix cleanse is over. It's actually 11 days, but either way, it's over. And, I'm going to have pizza tonight for dinner and I'm going to enjoy every last bite. I'm going to give a quick review and then let you know my results.

I know there are some studies out there that say it takes 7 days or 2 weeks or 30 days to break a habit. Well, if it's 7 days, it's a lie! After 7 days, I miss eating whenever I feel like it. That includes just mindless eating in front of my computer while I work or during a movie or while at a friendly get together with finger foods. Rarely am I ever actually hungry in these instances, but damn it, if I see a Dorito I want it. That being said, there were only a handful of times, maybe 2 or 3 that I felt really and truly hungry. I was also able to get in all of my workouts without passing out. Although, my last 2 swims were challenging and I cut the last swim short by 450m. On Saturday 3/22 I had a Honey Stinger Waffle in the morning before a 3 hour swim-bike-run training day. I had one gel before starting the run and a protein bar that is allowed for my recovery/lunch. On Sunday, I had track and completed 7.5 miles on one shot of the e+ energy that comes with the cleansing pack. After track, I had the morning protein shake, ran some errands and went home. When I got home, I convinced Daniel to go to the gym with me to lift some weights for about 40 minutes and did a 1 mile run with the dogs when we got back. I took a shower, drank my afternoon protein shake and then Daniel and I tackled cleaning for about 2.5 hours. This is one of those days that I felt really and truly hungry, to the point that I was light headed and could barely think straight or talk. It wasn't late enough to eat dinner so I laid down to sleep to ignore the hunger. I don't even have the words to describe how wonderful it felt to eat when Daniel and I finally got to eat dinner.

Let me back track a little and explain how the plan works (high-level). It's 11 days long. The first 2 days are pre-cleanse days that are just add'l 'Shake Days', followed by 2 Deep Cleanse days, 5 Shake days, and ending with 2 Deep Cleanse days. What are Deep Cleanse and Shake days. See below:

Deep Cleanse days - these are days where there is no real solid food except for 3 servings of one of the available snack options. Every few hours you are either drinking the cleanser mix or eating a snack. All-in-all on these days, the calorie intake is anywhere between 420 and 500 calories.

Shake days - on these days, you have an Isagenix protein shake for breakfast. For lunch and dinner you can have either another shake or you can have a 400 - 600 low glycemic healthy meal. You get a snack (options are listed for you but are generally no more than 50 or 60 calories) between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner. Depending on your lunch, dinner, and snack options, you're looking at anywhere between 1100 and 1500 calories.

I don't know if completing this cleanse was easier or harder than racing Beach2Battleship. As I was half way through the 1st of the last 2 days of the Deep Cleanse (last Wednesday), I was struggling to not snack on anything. And, then I thought about the saying that I've seen around "Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels". I got angry at this. Instead, I thought "Nothing feels as good as full feels". Not stuffed, but full. That wonderful feeling when you've eaten something so delicious and you're stomach is happy, you're brain is happy, and you're just smiling from ear to ear. Sorry, maybe that's just me, but eating makes me happy. Maybe this is a habit that I need more time to break. But, I'm not sure I want to.

Anyway, away from the tangent. I hope that I am able to keep the weight off. Hopefully I will if I can contain how many calories I am taking in. I guess one good lesson from this cleanse is now I know that I really don't need as much food to workout as I thought. Before I was taking in calories in some form or other before, during, and after just about every single workout. I didn't notice any significant difference in my training during this cleanse, except the last two swims that were on the deep cleanse days.

OK. Now onto the results (drum roll please)...

Weight

Body Fat %

Water%

Friday 3/14/14

123.8

17.9

61.3

Monday 3/17/14

128

* see notes below

Friday 3/21/14

119.4

16.9

62.7

Thursday 3/27/14

116.8

15.8

63.4

* The weekend before I crashed on my bike during a group training ride in Haines City. I took a pretty nasty fall and had to call the rest of the day quits. My hands hurt so bad that I just laid around Saturday and Sunday, taking anti-inflammatory and pain meds. I don't remember eating 2 bags of Oreos or anything else that would cause me to gain 5 pounds over the weekend, but that's what the scale said and I wanted to mark my weight on the day we started.

3/24 - off. I was scheduled to do a swim, but it was raining outside and I didn't want to take a chance on it lightning. OK, I know. Lame. My rationale at 5:30 in the morning is not always sensical
3/25 - 1 hr spin, 30 min treadmill run (3.25 miles), 30 strength (upper)
3/26 - :41 run (5 miles), 1:08 swim (3000m) - main set of this was 50 X 50 on 60"... yeah, barely made it through this one and the last 10 I had to take an extra 5 - 10" rest
3/27 - :57 swim (completed 2550m of 3000m). The last 450 consisted of 50s X 5 with 20" between each and a 200m cool down. I could do it. My arms were jell-o.

In conclusion, cleansing is hard. Especially if you enjoy eating. But, I'm glad I did this and got through it. I am at a weight that I am much happier at. My biggest concern is trying to maintain this weight within 2 or 3 pounds. Anyone do other cleanses that they hated or liked?

Friday, March 7, 2014

I haven't written in a while. Sometimes I'm motivated to get something on here and sometimes (most times) I would like work out or sleep than write something on here. I wish I could just think something and have it translated into words and posted on here. I do like having a sort of diary of my activities and thoughts but it's just more work to do to put it to paper (or blog).

Anywho, quick overview of what's on my mind:

I'm fat. OK, not obese or anything. But, for being involved in endurance sports and trying to compete, I am fat. This is relative to my current situation, so no one get in a tizzy. I've gained a lot of weight (for me) and have decided to do the Isagenix 9 day cleanse. I hope it works because that -ish is not cheap, or really even reasonable if I'm being honest. But, if it works and kick starts me losing weight then I can at least say it was worth it.
Details of current sitchiation (yes, I misspelled that on purpose): Current weight is 125.6 (that was this morning). I was 127 on Monday afternoon. Even the 125 is 10 pounds heavier than I was during B2B 2.5 years ago and 16 pounds heavier than I was when I was in tip-top shape (108, 14% bf, 2008). I would like to get between 110 and 115. Specifically, around 112 +/- 2 pounds and at 14% bf +/- 1%. I know 108 is almost un-achievable at this point since my bone structure has changed. I know this because when I was 108, I wore a 32A comfortably. Now, a 34B is comfortable when I have it on the loosest latch.
Action plan:

No carbs at night unless I have a big training day in the morning.

No breakfast before morning workouts. If the workout is longer than 90 minutes then I will have something or bring a gel, depending on the length, intensity, and type of the training session. I have been doing this for 3 weeks now. I thought that I would be super hungry during my workouts. Especially the mornings that I had spin or swimming. But, so far I have not felt hungry or un-energized during my workouts.

Isagenix 9-day detox. The 9 day detox users have an average of 7 pounds lost. So, if I can lose at least 4 pounds then I will consider that successful and will think about doing the 30 day weight loss plan to lose the remaining 8 - 10 pounds.

Adding 2+ strength training sessions to my weekly workouts. I currently do 1 day with Jon for functional strength training, so this is in addition to that. I have been going to the gym during my lunch breaks on Tuesday and Wednesday or Friday for 30 - 40 minutes of just pure strength training - dead lifts, squats, leg press, pull ups, curls, tri extensions, etc. Nothing fancy, just working on strength. This is because you burn more fat with more muscle. I have been doing this for 3 weeks now too.

I'm trying out a new gym - Harbour Island Athletic Club. They are expensive. But, they have everything I need (classes, weights, and pool) in one place and it's only 2 miles from where I live. Currently I have 2 gym memberships - one at Powerhouse which is 1 mile away and is strictly weights and cardio; the other is at LA Fitness which has everything I need, but the closest one is 5 miles from my house, is usually crowded, and sometimes charges me $5 because it's a Signature Club of which I am not a member. Between Powerhouse and LA Fitness I pay $70/mo. HIAC is $125. Like I said, it's expensive. I've tried it out for a week and so far it's been pretty nice. I don't have to wake up quite as early in the morning to go swimming and it takes me hardly any time to get home (7 min to be exact). Meanwhile, the closest LA Fitness on a good day with the light's being nice and there being little traffic, a one-way trip will take me 20 minutes. That's 40 minutes minimum out of my day just to go swim. I tried out a group class today and it was great. Reminded me of a boot camp class I used to take at Bally's about 6 years ago and I think contributed significantly to being in such great shape at the time. Everyone has been really nice too. The front desk people, the members, and the trainers. So, that's that. Daniel's not into spending $100 to join that gym, but he gets 2 free months with me and then he can move over to Powerhouse or whatever. I was hoping we would get to work out together, but after the 2 month free trial for Daniel I'm not sure that is going to happen.

Race updates:

I somehow hurt my Achilles during Charleston Marathon. Running RnR New Orleans 2 weeks later and then Gasparilla Half Marathon 2 weeks after that didn't help. So, I am still trying to take it easy. Easy meaning my longest run since Gasparilla has been 4 miles, one time, last weekend. I have decided not do to the Sarasota Half Marathon even though I really like that race. But, I need more rest on my Achilles/ankle and more time on my bike. Jon is going to get a group together the same weekend to ride the bike course of Haines City 70.3. So, that will be more beneficial to me than running Sarasota. I am also dropping from the Half Distance to the Olympic Distance for HITS Ocala which is 2 weeks before Haines City. And, I signed up for the Hurricane Man 2.4 mile swim on 5/3. I have no goal for the swim. I told Jon that I don't even want to train specifically for it. Meaning I don't want extra training time devoted to swim just for this race. I am doing it so that I can skip a pool session :) and to get a feel for a 2.4 mile open water swim in preparation for IMFL. I would like to try to swim it how I would any long race (at about 80 - 85% of max) and see where I come in at. I never give 100% in the swim of a race because it wears me out too much. I like to build in my races. Meaning, I start out at about 85% of max for the swim, progress to about 95% of max for the bike and then give whatever I have left for the run. This works great for the longer distances, for me. For the sprints and sometimes even the Olympic distance races, it's balls-to-the-wall all out effort until the end.